Heroes of the Storm Friday Roundup

A major part of the Heroes of the Storm news for Friday was the announcement of four new heroes, three of which were playable on the show floor. We played them all to get first impressions for you to enjoy!

ThrallThrall is a melee assassin. He carries over many thematic elements from his World of Warcraft heritage, such as Chain Lightning, and the Doomhammer.

He's a character who deals heavy damage at close quarters with his passive automatically dealing high additional damage when it reaches five stacks. He can also sustain a reasonable amount of damage, making him a really fun hero to do things like solo merc camps on.

He casts Chain Lightning, summons Frostwolves, and can cast Windfury on himself, empowering his basic attacks. One of his Ultimate abilities is Sundering, which gives him the option to use the Doomhammer to crack the ground in front of him.Jaina

Jaina is another hero who has considerable nods to her Warcraft roots. She's a ranged assassin, dealing high damage from a distance. Her abilities will be very familiar to any frost mage -- Frostbolt, Blizzard, and the like. She also has a stacking buff, just like Thrall.

Jaina is a lot more squishy than her orcish cohort, and really needs to remain at range as much as possible in order not to suffer at the hands of melee heroes. She deals a lot of damage, and with caution can happily solo merc camps and the like. Her ultimate abilities are iconic mage manoeuvres -- a Water Elemental or Ring of Frost.

Lost VikingsThe Lost Vikings are not one hero but three. Controlled just like Starcraft unit groups, you can choose with number toggles to control them one at a time, or all together as a group. There's no distance limit - they can go wherever they want on the map. During the Heroes of the Storm panel, Lead Game Designer Dustin Browder talked about how you could capture both shrines and the Dragon in Dragonshire -- but he wouldn't recommend it!

The key of the Lost Vikings is to have great map awareness. To really succeed with this hero, you'll want to have eyes everywhere on the minimap, and choose wisely whether to split them apart, or bring them together in a powerful group. They comprise Olaf, a tank; Baelog, a melee DPS; and Eric , a ranged DPS who's squishier than Baelog but moves faster. You can choose when leveling the heroes up through the match whether to give additional power to Olafd, Baelog or Eric, and pick some abilities that affect all heroes. Since map positioning is so key to Lost Vikings, the abilities are relatively simple, but notable ones include a Q that allows all three to temporarily avoid damage, and a whirlwind-type ability which all three perform. They also all get together in a viking longboat in one of their Ultimate abilities!

SylvanasSylvanas was the hero that wasn't playable on the show floor, but we saw a short preview of her abilities and thematic focus in the panel. She's a dark archer archetype, with powerful, if unfinished, abilities that allow her to temporarily stun NPCs and even towers. She can also mind control creeps and mercs, forcing them to turn on their friends! New MapsThe team also introduced anew map - Sky Temple - playable at the con. It's a simple enough map - capture temples by walking into them, then defend them by fighting off not only the opposing team, but also several waves of NPCs. Once you own the temple, it will periodically blast the other team's location with powerful bolts. Temples will activate in random locations near the center of the map, so you'll have several opportunities to capture them.Gameplay NewsThe Heroes of the Storm panel also revealed several upcoming changes.

LeaversThe Heroes team had a new, interesting approach to players who repeatedly leave games. After a leaving grace period to account for things like emergencies or occasional connection issues, players who repeatedly leave games will be moved into a Leavers' Bracket. where they will be playing with other players who regularly leave matches.

This apt punishment will ensure that, if it's a playstyle they enjoy, leavers can play with fellow leavers. If they decide to change their ways, they can simply stop leaving games, and in time they will return to the normal brackets.

Ranked PlayThe big point of discussion at the panel was Ranked Play information. They talked about changes coming to Draft Mode, and explained how the Pick System would work, allowing players to pick their heroes based on the choices of the other team and the map that the game would be played on. This new system would ensure that tactical choices could be made.

There will be no ban system for now, but they're keeping a close eye on testing and working on balance issues as they arise -- they will revisit bans in the future. They also hit on Team Play, asserting that this, of course, will be the highest level of ranked play, and that they would be arranging the game and its UI accordingly. You'll be able to create a team with a roster of up to nine players, and name it, as well as being on as many as three teams at a time.

Lastly, they talked about their Skill Ranking. Similar to an MMR or ELO, it's a rating that is given to each player according to their success against others. So, if you win against a player who has a far higher skill rating than yours, you'll gain skill rating, if the opposite happens you'll lose it. This system will be applied to ranked play in matchmaking, with consideration made wherever possible for pre-made groups in queued games -- if you queue as a group of three, it'll try to match you against another team with a group of three so that larger groups don't have such dominance over full PuGs.

Commentaire de Mianca

Commentaire de Mattarias

I like that's they're going with oldschool Thrall and Jaina. Lost Vikings are some crazy design idea! I like it!

Commentaire de Razuu

on 2014-11-07T20:16:56-06:00

This game looks so much fun. The Lost Viking looks interesting to play.

Commentaire de Yousha

on 2014-11-07T20:17:12-06:00

"new heros" like nobody was expecting those 2\r-.-

Commentaire de JaxOh1

on 2014-11-07T20:17:40-06:00

called it last year...jaina and thrall gonna lay down the smackdown in the Nexus

Commentaire de lordphoenix

on 2014-11-07T20:17:44-06:00

The lost vikings gameplay sound really fun!\rBut Jaina seems to be too overpowered if a single frost nova can destroy Blizzcon!

Commentaire de cptnate64

on 2014-11-07T20:18:08-06:00

I hope my luck with this beta is better than my WoD luck. I think this game looks like so much fun.

Commentaire de Whyfi

on 2014-11-07T20:19:21-06:00

Really wonder if they'll include the Black Arrow for Sylvanas. Would be an awesome nostalgic ability to play with.

Commentaire de Hagith

on 2014-11-07T20:19:56-06:00

Yay Lady Sylvanas *-* Sweet.

Commentaire de Sindarion

on 2014-11-07T20:22:07-06:00

I really neeeeed to get into the closed beta! The new Jains hero looks interesting.

Commentaire de Tamashi

on 2014-11-07T20:22:12-06:00

I've received a beta invite to the technical beta, but from the impression it looks like League of Legends, but then WoW themed. I guess I shouldn't judge a book on it's cover and actually try it out. I've never played any Blizzard games apart from World of Warcraft, so it could be a fun and new experience. :)

Commentaire de Zuril

on 2014-11-07T20:23:31-06:00

The lost vikings are a cool idea, but I really want to see what they'll do with Sylvanas. Nice to see that they're addressing premades vs pugs early on.

Commentaire de desfore

on 2014-11-07T20:26:05-06:00

I would've preferred the Lost Vikings to be 3 separate heroes, but this is better than not having them at all. Now we just need Blackthorne and a car from Rock N Roll Racing to show up, and I'll be satisfied.

Commentaire de Greystar

on 2014-11-07T20:26:24-06:00

Have been playing this through several of the Alpha stages already including 2 wipes. I enjoy it and heard it was similar to League of Legends but never have played LoL myself.

Commentaire de Daigun

on 2014-11-07T20:27:25-06:00

Thrall being an assassin sounds weird to me I figured he would be support even if he would be similar to Rehgar. I think just putting in grom as an assassin would have been loads better.

Commentaire de Ooyeah

on 2014-11-07T20:28:16-06:00

Not a fan of ranked. Will be interesting to see how it goes

Commentaire de Buggywox

on 2014-11-07T20:28:46-06:00

Interesting stuff. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Commentaire de zotheghost

on 2014-11-07T20:29:34-06:00

I was really hoping for the Lost Vikings to make an appearance. Although I didn't expect all three to be the same hero! It sounds interesting in concept but I'm not sure how well I'll like it once I see it in-game. We'll see.

Commentaire de tabletop

on 2014-11-07T20:29:46-06:00

i so wanted to get into the alpha but didnt :( maybe the beta?

Commentaire de lizymarie

on 2014-11-07T20:37:50-06:00

I'm not a fan of mobas but I reallly love Sylvanas.... I may have to get in this...